COLUMBIA — Despite a 2-0 start, things weren’t going as smoothly for defending Class 5A champion Columbia heading into Thursday’s District 8-AAA matchup with visiting Tullahoma as the Lions would have liked.
“This last week, we’ve harped on how our defense needed to step it up,” junior quarterback Matt Markham said. “We told them our offense couldn’t keep scoring 40-something points a game.”
By the end of Thursday’s showdown, it was apparent — and fortunate — that the Lion defensive unit listened and heeded those words.
Columbia forced a pair of second-half fumbles, gave up just two scores on Tullahoma’s six trips inside the Lion 30-yard line and escaped with a 13-10 win.
“We got some luck, no doubt about that,” Columbia Coach Vance Belew said after the win, in which Markham threw for 213 yards — giving him 825 in three games — and Chris Harris hit a pair of field goals for the winning margin.
“We didn’t have the offensive spark we’d had in the other two games. You have to give Tullahoma credit for that. They shut down a lot of the big plays we had scored on, did a good job of keeping that in check.”
Columbia, which had scored 49 points at Lawrence County and 45 at Dickson County, appeared to be headed in that same direction early Thursday. Markham and Eric Belew connected on a 47-yard pass play to set up a Harris 27-yard boot on the opening possession, and a Dre Hall 43-yard reception led to an eventual 21-yard try by Harris that was blocked.
But Tullahoma (1-2, 0-1) grabbed a 7-3 second-quarter lead and only trailed 13-7 at halftime.
Down by that same score with four minutes remaining in the third period, the Wildcats moved from their own 36 to the Columbia 2. Needing just inches for a first down — or a little more for a go-ahead touchdown — the visitors were hit with a delay of game penalty and had to settle for a 23-yard Joseph Burke field goal.
“That was me not getting the play in in time,” Tullahoma Coach John Olive said. “They’d just stopped us two straight times. I was trying something different.
“It cost us.”
Tullahoma held Columbia on the next possession and drove back into the red zone again before the Wildcats suffered their second fumble with 3:24 remaining. They never saw the ball again, as Hall broke a bubble screen for 35 yards across midfield, added a 14-yard catch to convert a third down and an 11-yarder on fourth-and-10 from the Tullahoma 30 to ice the win.
“It wasn’t what we intended, but that’s football,” Markham said.
“Overall, I feel better after three games than last year,” Belew said. “Our first two wins last year were very close, and we got this win this year where we lost in overtime last year.
“But I’m concerned about us continuing to improve.”